Life after COVID-19 will not be easy

There is no clarity on how fragile supply chains will be maintained, restored, and repaired in the absence of those who cut wood and bring water to make the city vibrate.
 Stores and offices will slowly limp as they put on a brave front and spend all their energy to make sure they survive somehow. The government has not yet shared a plan for the revival and recovery of the affected economy. The reassuring noises have failed to comfort the most afflicted segment of the population: daily wage earners and employees in the unorganized sector, landless farmers and millions of migrants who became refugees, helpless and "stateless" overnight.
 
 Will they return? Or will hunger and excruciating discrimination lead the stigmatized poor to a life of slavery in overcrowded cities? How will "social distancing" unravel once a school, college, university, office and factory is restarted, not with 50 percent staff but at full steam? Transportation will continue to be a major challenge.But, logically, all those people should be quarantined. Neither the central government nor the state governments can be criticized for this. Aside from minor and major technical issues, they have done their best in exceptional circumstances.

The shameful sympathy of the top bureaucrats who are on the brink of servility is shameful. There is no squeal of disagreement or point to a lapse that could result in correction mid-course.  Enjoying the reflected glory of the Prime Minister's radiant charisma, his cabinet colleagues are content with appearances most of the time.
The biggest disappointment has been the judiciary. To be precise, the Supreme Court.  Today, it is more likely to speak of the bank's masterly inactivity. Only in the rarest cases, their lordships are put into action. Those who are not well versed in the constantly evolving forms of contingent jurisprudence are baffled by some recent apex court decisions.
 
The FIRs against Republic TV's Arnab Goswami has blinked away and he and the state governments were given enough time to respond to court notices, as the honorable judges felt they were 'not inclined to interfere with the media's right to freedom of expression.

Without prejudging this particular case, one can point out that the courts seem to treat different people differently. Those favored by the rulers seem to enjoy greater freedoms. Others are slapped with non-redeemable offenses for unzipping their lips.  Many feel that the courts have abdicated their responsibility by admitting that at times like this it is better not to interfere with what the government is doing.
 
It is imperative that the nation unites in the war against this deadly virus. But this certainly does not mean that we should blindly follow the leader like a flock of sheep. Nor can Indians allow themselves to be subjected to submission before superstitious religious fanaticism. Thank goodness, the lynching mobs have not been rampant lately, but volunteers from social organizations / NGOs have been active and visible in many places "helping" the authorities to effectively enforce the blockade.
 
Once the blockade is lifted and we begin to collect fragments of our fragmented lives, we will be forced to ask these and other awkward questions.